To get one of the 150 seats in parliament, a party needs to get at least 0,66666666666666666666666666666666666% of the vote. So, if a party would get 66,666666666666666666666666% of the vote, it would get a 100 seats. In practice, no party in the Netherlands ever got such a big share of the vote. Bigger parties have some advantage in getting residual seats. The three left of center parties PvdA, SP, and GroenLinks have combined their lists, which may also help in residual seats; like the combination between the two Protestant Christian parties SGP and ChristenUnie may help those two parties.

There are 20 constituencies, where parties have to bring their candidate lists to the voting boards. All parties participate in all of them, unless indicated otherwise below. A consticuency is not like in eg, Britain: there is no winner takes all. All the votes of all constituencies are added.

The 21 political parties participating in the elections are:

VVD: the biggest party at the last elections. A bit similar to United States Republicans, minus the US Republican religious right. Pro-“austerity“. Pro-war.

Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA): coalition partner of the VVD in the collapsed government. They used to be the biggest party, but polls expect them to get only about 15 of 150 seats now. Pro-austerity. Pro-war.

50Plus: another “one issue party”. Against cuts in pensions. They have one Senate seat now, and may get a seat in the Second Chamber at these elections.

Anti Europa Partij: a new party. As far as I know another one-issue party, against the European Union. They participate in all constituencies, except constituency #20. District 20 are Dutch island colonies in the Caribbean like Bonaire. Where maybe people have most reasons to be “anti-Europe”. Yet, there of all places one cammot vote for that party 🙂

Democratisch Politiek Keerpunt DPK: the party of Hero Brinkman, ex MP for the PVV, who quarreled with Wilders. Not expected to get a seat.

Liberaal Democratische Partij (LibDem): a split from the VVD, which they considered had drifted too far to the right, becoming a conservative instead of a liberal party.

Libertarische Partij (LP): pro-unlimited capitalism. Participated in earlier elections. Then, their then and now party leader Toine Manders drove a car, with a woman radio journalist interviewing him inside. The Libertarian leader said to the journalist that the party wanted to abolish the maximum speed for cars. Just as he said that, he crashed the car into the freeway rail on live radio. The journalist was wounded. The party got very few votes then.

Nederland Lokaal: a coalition of local parties. Not in constituency #20.

Partij van de Toekomst (PvdT, Party of the Future): pro-online voting. Not in constituency #20.

Partij voor Mens en Spirit (MenS): a New Age party. Did not get a seat last time, and is not expected to this time.

Piratenpartij (Pirate party): a one-issue party (Internet privacy). Did not get a seat last elections, but maybe this time, as sister parties are rather popular in Sweden and Germany. Not in constituency #20.

Politieke Partij NXD: only in Amsterdam. Extremely little is known about this new party.

SOPN: wants Internet referendums. Party of a New Age businessman who believes in Illuminati conspiracy and Maya calendar doomsday theories. Not in constituency #20.

10 thoughts on “Dutch September elections”

MenS > Translated into English Party for Human and Spirit is based on politics from the heart. We are the only party with a serious financial programme and plans for Europe. We will introduce a new currency in the Netherlands alongside the Euro. Further we intend to transform ABN-AMRO in a real cooperative bank not such as the RABO. We have an open but critical mind to all kind of medical practices and medicines. We do believe in a more democratic Europe, where a discussion about the spirit of Europe must be possible. What kind of Europe do we want. I am stil busy to think about putting more detailed information in our European paragraph.

Hi Sung, I disagree with your party on quite some points (I don’t believe in paranormal quackery in medicine etc.). But thank you for reacting to my blog post, and maybe some of the other parties will react as well.

Hi Sung, if a person doesn’t believe “in paranormal quackery in medicine”, then it DOES NOT FOLLOW from that automatically that that person has “a materialistic view of the world”. You concluded that really too soon.

There may be lots of other possibilities. Eg, that person may be a pantheist in the Spinoza tradition, rejecting the division between “God” and nature; thus, not believing in the “supernatural”. Or that person may even be a believer in the paranormal; however, that person may not like the QUACKERY bit.

As an aside, “idealist” (in the philosophical sense, not in the usual sense of a person who believes in some cause) views of the world have not always had happy consequences. Look just at the Roman Catholic churchs’ history of inquisition and its present child abuse issues. And similar issues in other “spiritual” tendencies.